


you are the sun and i am just the planets [spinning around you]

by pagan_mint



Category: Borderlands (Video Games), Tales from the Borderlands - Fandom
Genre: Bromance, Friendship, Gen, M/M, Present Tense, bg shipping, fortunately vaughn understands, no smoochin here sorry boys, not that there's anything wrong with being gay, nothing really gay about it, rhys is actually terrible at communication, tfw you get a permanent reminder of your undying love for your bro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-09
Updated: 2018-02-09
Packaged: 2019-03-16 01:22:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13625571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pagan_mint/pseuds/pagan_mint
Summary: "Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence." -Octavia ButlerRhys has not mastered the art of timing. (And if you ask anyone, they will tell you that they don't think he knows what silenceis.)





	you are the sun and i am just the planets [spinning around you]

**Author's Note:**

> I just finished TFTBL for the first time and at first I was like "I'm not going to write fic for this" and then I saw [this fanart](http://corporatestooge.tumblr.com/post/169904176832/i-thought-you-were-dead-hey-can-i-drag) by CorporateStooge and felt COMPELLED to craft a piece about it so here's whatever this is. _I hope they don't mind haha_
> 
> also it is scientifically proven fact that I draw all of my fic-writing energy from new Fall Out Boy albums so keep it up, Patrick Stump (title from "Last of the Real Ones")
> 
> PS: the tags are from NigaHiga's song "Bromance" just in case you don't get the joke lol

Vaughn has never been a huge fan of body mods. Rhys remembers their conversation about it, back in their Hyperion days. 

“I don’t care if other people get them,” Vaughn had insisted, gesturing to Rhys as the obvious example - mecha arm, Echo Eye, the whole nine yards. “But it’s not for me. My body is a temple, man.” 

“Okay, sure,” Rhys had said, rolling his eyes, because that had been before he knew Vaughn had the abs of a god. “But what if, like, something super important happened to you? You wouldn’t get a sweet tattoo to memorialize it by?” 

Vaughn had shrugged. “Important things happen all the time,” he said. “It’s Hyperion. If I got a tattoo every time something important happened, I wouldn’t have any skin left by the end of the year.” 

Rhys had laughed. “That’s fair, I guess. But I bet you’ll cave one of these days, bro. Probably get something stupid, like ‘I HEART ACCOUNTING’ on your shoulder. And I’m gonna make fun of you for _weeks_.” 

Back in the present day, Rhys stares at the black circles inked on the left side of Vaughn’s neck and swallows hard. He can't make fun of  _this_.

 “Er,” he says eloquently. “This is…” A lot. Sentimental. Kind of a little overwhelming, to be honest. “Mine,” he says, instead of any of that. 

Good going, Rhys. Great job. That’s exactly the reaction he wanted. 

“Yeah,” Vaughn says, dropping his gaze to the corner. He sounds tired - no, not tired, Rhys realizes. He sounds - _sad_. He’s never _heard_ Vaughn be sad before. 

“I thought you were dead,” the former accountant continues quietly. “I just wanted something to - some kind of reminder, I guess. That you were there. That we were friends.” 

The backs of Rhys’s eyes are starting to sting, which is Danger Sign Number One that he is about to experience Feelings. So instead of crying on Vaughn, the man who built a world out of _nothing_ while Rhys was off trying to put himself back together after ruining _everything_ , he says: 

“Guess I’m not that important to you, then.” 

He knows immediately it was the wrong thing to say, knew it before it even left his mouth. Kicks himself as Vaughn recoils from the words, withdrawing into his stupid blue infinity scarf. (Where did he even get that, Rhys has wondered. Maybe it was a gift from someone. Someone who is not Rhys. Which bothers him more than he'd like to admit.) 

“Because you said you wouldn’t get a tattoo for something important,” he blurts frantically. “So like, if you got my tattoo to remember me, then that means I'm not - that’s what I was going for, but it came out - uh - ” 

He doesn’t realize that he’s kind of been flailing his arms around until Vaughn lightly catches his wrist. Rhys immediately freezes, his breath catching as the pads of calloused fingers press into his suicide vein. (The callouses are new, he thinks. It makes him wonder what his own fingers feel like. The skin ones, of course, not the metal ones, but maybe that went without saying - ) 

“Rhys,” Vaughn says breathlessly, and after a moment Rhys realizes it’s because he’s laughing. “Shut up.” 

“Okay,” Rhys says. He looks at the tattoo on Vaughn’s neck again and smiles. Everything about them has always been different, but now they match in at least one way, and - well, that’s different too. But maybe that's a good thing. “Okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading, please like comment and subscribe for more fics similar to this one <3
> 
> I don't have a "song" for this piece like the Cool Fanfic Authors but when I was formatting this for posting I listened to "Échame La Culpa" by Luis Fonsi and Demi Lovato on repeat so there you go


End file.
